With the holiday season in full swing, we at the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) have been thinking about the people who aren’t able to be with their loved ones because of unjust deportations. Kenault is one of them.

Kenault grew up in the United States, was on his high school wrestling team, and fell in love with his high school sweetheart. Months into her pregnancy, ICE arrested Kenault on the basis of years-old marijuana-related convictions. Kenault spent more than a year in ICE detention. He met his newborn, Devario, for the first time through a glass partition. Devario was over a year old before Kenault was able to hold him in his arms; by this time, Kenault had been deported and his wife, Melissa, was raising their son alone.

Devario is asking for only one thing for Christmas: to spend the holiday with his father.

As his mother recently wrote, “try to imagine what it might feel like for a ten-year-old boy, who's never celebrated any holiday with his father to be able to wake up to the gift of his dad.”

NIJC is working to give Kenault and others a Chance to Come Home. In our April report, we shared his story along with 10 others who have been unjustly deported. We called on the Biden administration to establish a meaningful chance to come home for people who have been forced to leave behind their families, homes, and businesses because of unjust U.S. immigration law and policy.

The U.S. government deports hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year. Through deportations, the government is responsible for the permanent separation of families, destabilizing and enduring poverty, and colossal harm to children. All of these harms disproportionately affect Black and Brown immigrant families and communities.

The harms suffered by the children of deported parents, like Devario, are particularly painful. Research and evidence show long-lasting, traumatic mental and physical health effects on children, regardless of whether a child remains in the U.S. or accompanies a parent to another country.

“Holidays in our home are hard,” Melissa writes. “I do my best each year to provide a happy holiday and teach the joy and meaning of Christmas, but unfortunately, the gift of a father I cannot buy.”

NIJC’s policy team is working day and night to bring Kenault, and many others, home. While we have gratefully celebrated the homecoming of some of the people featured in our report, including U.S. Navy veteran and father Howard Bailey, we believe it is both possible and necessary to extend this opportunity to hundreds more who have been impacted by our country's unfair immigration system.

Ready to learn more? Join us in February for a video briefing to meet Howard, Kenault, and some of the others fighting for a Chance to Come Home. Stay tuned for more details.

Take action now and sign the petition calling on President Biden to create a meaningful chance to come home for people who have been unjustly deported, so they can reunited with their loved ones and communities.

Thank you for standing with Kenault, Devario, Melissa, and the many others who just want a chance to be together with their loved ones.

-Jordyn Rozensky
National Immigrant Justice Center

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NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER
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